The prior art is replete with numerous examples of devices and other methodology which converts a first material into a second material. For example, the use of a plasma for the conversion of a first material into a second material is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,156, the teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein. It is well known from this, and other references that plasmas are useful for causing materials to undergo a chemical conversion that would typically not normally occur, or that would occur very slowly if the materials that were chemically reacted were presented in some form other than in a plasma state.
As will be recognized, the creation of a plasma is very electrically energy intensive endeavor. Consequently, the use of plasmas in the production of various materials in commercial quantities is somewhat restricted in view of the costs attendant to purchasing the electricity and equipment necessary to produce the plasma and the other equipment to produce the product of interest.
In certain chemical processes, chemical flame burners are employed to combust a first material for purposes of reacting it with another material in order to produce a resulting compound. The conventional flame burners, which are utilized in the industry, consume a significant amount of fuel, and air, to maintain the high operational temperatures that are necessary for these chemical reactions to occur. In an industrial setting, the burners and confinement chambers utilized with these assemblies tend to be rather large, and costly, and take up a significant amount of floor space in any industrial building. Still further, when comparing the relative costs of fabricating a chemical flame burner to a plasma gas heater, for example, it is usually agreed that the chemical flame burner will usually be less expensive to fabricate and to operate.
Therefore, a method for chemically converting a first material into a second material which addresses the shortcomings attendant with the prior art practices is the subject of the present application.